About This Airport 1 Fire Training Simulator
This aircraft emergency simulator is designed for ARFF (Aircraft Rescue and Firefighting) crews, company officers, and incident commanders. Use it to practice size-up, resource deployment, and command decisions for aircraft incidents, fuel fires, and terminal structure fires. Drag and drop fire and smoke onto the photo to build scenarios. It is free, runs in the browser on desktop and mobile, and needs no software installation.
How to Use It
- Study the photo for a minute as if you were the first-arriving officer on scene.
- Drag fire, smoke, wind-driven smoke, and personnel onto the scene to create a scenario.
- Give your size-up report and initial action plan, then change the scenario and repeat.
Size-Up Considerations for an Airport Terminal Incident
- Life safety: Passengers and crew come first. Decide how people will leave the aircraft and how fire control can protect that escape path.
- Fuel: Aircraft carry large fuel loads, and fueling vehicles add more. A spill can spread fire quickly under and around the fuselage, so look for the source and where the fuel will flow.
- Terminal exposure: An aircraft parked near the terminal can expose the building and the passenger bridges. Decide whether the terminal needs evacuation or exposure protection.
- Terminal fires: Large open spaces, glass fronts, and long roof lines affect smoke movement and ventilation if the fire is in the structure.
- Wind and approach: Wind direction affects fire spread, smoke movement, and where apparatus can stand. ARFF crews generally try to approach from upwind and uphill.
- Coordination: Airport operations and the control tower need to be notified and kept informed, and other aircraft and vehicles must be kept away from the scene.
- In the photo: a passenger jet is parked at the terminal with a fuel truck and other ground vehicles beside it. A control tower rises above the center of the terminal, light poles stand along the ramp, and a wide grass strip lies between the camera and the ramp. Think about exposures to the terminal, how apparatus would approach across the open ground, and what the wind would do.
Practice Scenarios
- A fuel fire under the aircraft at the terminal while passengers are on board.
- An engine fire as the aircraft parks near the fuel truck.
- Fire in the terminal structure with smoke from the roof.
- Wind pushing an aircraft fire toward the terminal.
Discussion Questions
- What are your first three observations on arrival, and what do they tell you?
- What is the greatest life hazard, and how would you protect the escape path?
- Where would you position the first apparatus relative to the wind, and why?
- How would you protect the terminal while you control the fuel fire?
- What additional resources would you request, and when?
This tool is for training discussion only. Always follow your own department's standard operating procedures and local protocols.
